The Village: the Bradleys in Spain

With Jen Brister – I just got recognised as one of their top fans! 🎉

We’re going live on BBC Coventry & Warwickshire radio 📻 this morning on the Vic Minett show.

Talking about house 🏠 sitting 🪑at 10.00 am

I’m hoping we will be able to hear it after.
We can’t get BBC Sounds here I don’t think in the Dordogne 🇫🇷

📸 pic of Leo the French 🇫🇷 cat 🐈 for attention

Well, after 100 days in the 🐪 desert 🌵

Now, this…
We’ve left the dry desert dust & heat of the Sinai for the damp, heavy mossy richness of the Dordogne.

This is the "War Room" phase. It’s not glossy and it’s definitely not a holiday.
It’s morning markets and the fattest, juiciest oysters I’ve ever seen for supper.

Its lentils slowly bubbling away on the wood stove while we sit at a scarred kitchen table, buried in the grit of relocation.
Poles of project papers… in different
Languages

This is where the "The Village Project" gets its teeth.

The paperwork for the Coventry Arts Collective is a mountain.

We’re navigating the labyrinth of EU grants and legalities to make this permanent.
It’s confusing and draining and exhausting and it’s messy.

But this is the work of belonging.

You don’t get to document and protect a heritage if you aren't willing to sit in the steam and do the hard, un-glamorous labour of building a foundation.
🪨

We aren't looking for a "Place in the Sun."
🌴 🍹 ❌

We’re fuelling up on local soil and lakes for the trek to the high villages of Aragón.

The nomad chapter is dead.

The builder chapter is loud, hungry, and very real 🦂

lidlfrance has mini vodka bottles at the till… just sayin’

And just like that… we’re in France 🇫🇷

The desert 🏜️🌵🐪🦂 is but a distant memory

With Kenilworth Matters – I just made it onto their weekly engagement list by being one of their top engagers! 🎉